Joe Morgenstern | KCRW

KCRW

ON AIR
ECLECTIC 24
NEWS 24
SANTA BARBARA

ON AIR

STAR

00:00:00 | 3:02:50

STAR

MINI-PLAYER HIDE

UP NEXT NPR'S MORNING EDITION Nine Months After Sandy, Baby Boom (6 am - 9 am)
LIVE STREAM ELECTIC 24 KCRW’s signature music blend.
YOU MIGHT LIKE TOM SCHNABEL’S RHYTHM PLANET KCRW’s signature music blend.

PROFILE

Joe Morgenstern Host

Joe Morgenstern

Social:
Twitter

Host, 'Film Reviews'

Joe Morgenstern has been the film critic of the Wall Street Journal since 1995. He was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times before he became a theater and movie critic for the New York Herald Tribune in 1959. He moved to Newsweek as movie critic in 1965 and was a columnist for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner from 1983 to 1988.

He has written television scripts, including The Boy in the Plastic Bubble and several episodes of Law & Order. Mr. Morgenstern is co-founder of the National Society of Film Critics.

A graduate of Lehigh University, he won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for criticism.

FROM Joe Morgenstern

Crazy Rich Asians

Crazy Rich Asians “Crazy Rich Asians” is about people who have it all, and the movie succeeds in having almost all on its own terms. This romantic comedy is bright, buoyant and hilarious, though far from flawless.

Aug 17, 2018

BlacKkKlansman

BlacKkKlansman Spike Lee doesn’t mince words in “BlacKkKlansman.” He ignites them, and illustrates them with inflammatory images. This is a freewheeling account of an African-American cop who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1970s. It’s uneven as narrative drama, but stunning as a furious, in-your-white-face outcry against racial hatred in America’s past and turbulent present, with pointed references to President Trump.

3 MIN, 38 SEC Aug 10, 2018

Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is back to saving the world from nuclear devastation—he did it almost seven years ago in “Ghost Protocol,” so you can bet on him succeeding again.

3 MIN, 34 SEC Jul 27, 2018

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again Yes, the glee is industrial-strength, and the ABBA-fueled production numbers are so far over the top that the film is both topless and chaste. Yet there’s a wellspring of genuine feeling in “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” a time-hopping sequel that amounts to an origin story.

3 MIN, 38 SEC Jul 20, 2018

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Ant-Man and the Wasp Paul Rudd is back, winningly, as Scott Lang/aka the superhero of the title, along with Michael Douglas as the inventor Dr. Hank Pym, and Evangeline Lilly, who’s lovely and strong as Hank’s daughter, Hope van Dyne.

3 MIN, 36 SEC Jul 06, 2018

Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace “Leave No Trace” was made by an artist who combines plainspoken poetry with documentary detail. It’s a gorgeous film, a triumph on top of an earlier one and, not incidentally, a small miracle of concision at a time when audiences are more and more interested in stories spun out at great length in episodes and seasons.

3 MIN, 30 SEC Jun 29, 2018

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom An imminent threat of extinction drives the narrative. It’s three years after the previous film, “Jurassic World,” and the collapse of the theme park on Isla Nublar. The dinosaurs have the island to themselves, but a volcanic eruption threatens to wipe them out.

3 MIN, 50 SEC Jun 22, 2018

Tag

Tag For all its repetitiveness, and frantic silliness, “Tag” ends up being good fun, with an unexpectedly sweet spirit that stays with you.

3 MIN, 34 SEC Jun 15, 2018

Hereditary

Hereditary I’m happy to bring news about “Hereditary,” a sensationally scary debut feature by Ari Aster.

3 MIN, 47 SEC Jun 08, 2018

Summer 1993

Summer 1993

7 MIN, 17 SEC May 25, 2018

Beast

Beast This formidably accomplished debut feature by Michael Pearce takes us down familiar paths into a darkness all its own.

3 MIN, 31 SEC May 11, 2018

Tully

Tully This short, bright comedy with a dark core was directed by Jason Reitman from a superb screenplay by Diablo Cody; they collaborated previously on “Juno” and “Young Adult.” It’s a remarkable film about nothing less than regeneration, the harrowing process of pulling one’s worn, dispirited parts into a vibrant new whole.

3 MIN May 04, 2018

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War Marvel has rounded up a remarkable collection of characters for this picture, starting with Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, Spider- Man—a new Spider-Man played by Tom Holland—and all the rest.

3 MIN, 43 SEC Apr 27, 2018

I Feel Pretty

I Feel Pretty

3 MIN, 32 SEC Apr 20, 2018

The Rider

The Rider “The Rider” has an unerring feel for its subject, a young cowboy struggling against his fate in the American West. That’s all the more remarkable because this beautiful film was written and directed by Chloé Zhao, a Chinese woman born in Beijing.

3 MIN, 26 SEC Apr 13, 2018

A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place “A Quiet Place” is exactly 90 minutes long, or short. It may not make the masterpiece cut, but this little horror thriller is enormously entertaining, because it’s organized around a terrific idea—the necessity of absolute silence.

3 MIN, 38 SEC Apr 06, 2018

Recommended

In 'Speechless,' Scott Silveri combines comedy, family & disability

In 'Speechless,' Scott Silveri combines comedy, family & disability Scott Silveri has written and produced sitcoms for more than 20 years. In all that time, he never encountered a TV family that looked anything like the one he grew up in -- with a mom, a dad...and a brother with cerebral palsy. He changed that with his show Speechless on ABC. Silveri tells us about looking to his own past for stories, and why he was determined to make a family comedy and not just a "disability show."

28 MIN, 30 SEC Jun 03, 2017

Securing Public Spaces, Super Wealthy Asians

Design and Architecture

Securing Public Spaces, Super Wealthy Asians Vehicles are increasingly being used as weapons, as seen in the London Bridge attack over the weekend and in New York’s Times Square last month. The Compton-based company Calpipe is designing security bollards to help make public spaces safer. And novelist Kevin Kwan satirizes the “crazy rich” Asian jet set and their luxurious tastes in his latest book, “Rich People Problems.”

28 MIN, 31 SEC Jun 06, 2017

Farewell LA freeways, Peter Shire is back

Design and Architecture

Farewell LA freeways, Peter Shire is back Angelenos don't want more freeways but we seem not to want mass transit either. Metro has killed the 710 freeway extension, and bus and train ridership is down across the region. What's the future of getting around in LA? And, Peter Shire is having a comeback. What attracts a new generation to his playful ceramics and furniture?

28 MIN, 27 SEC May 30, 2017

George Saunders: Lincoln in the Bardo (Part I)

George Saunders: Lincoln in the Bardo (Part I) Lincoln in the Bardo dramatizes a grieving President Lincoln as he visits the grave of his beloved son Willie, who died at age eleven. In the novel, the buried dead believe they're not dead -- "they're sick and refer to their coffins as "sick boxes."

28 MIN, 28 SEC Aug 31, 2017